Armenia provides extra electricity to Georgia during major blackout

July 28, 2014 - 14:22 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Most of Georgia, including capital city Tbilisi, was left without electricity for two and a half hours after damage of several power lines late on Sunday, July 27 night, Civil Georgia reports.

Damage of two 220-kilovolt power lines, Kolkhida-2 and Paliastomi-1, as well as 500-kilovolt power line Imereti caused the major power outage, affecting almost entire country except of Adjara and parts of Samegrelo region, according to the ministry of energy.

While one of the damaged 220-kV power lines, Kolkhida-2, was restored by dawn on Monday, efforts are still underway to restore two others and restoration is expected to be over by Monday evening, officials say.

Power supply, which was restored at about 1am on Monday, was made possible as a result of emergency electricity imports from Armenia and Turkey, said Sulkhan Zumburidze, a senior executive of the state-owned power transmission company, Georgian State Electrosystem.

Energy Minister, Kakha Kaladze, thanked “our friendly country, Armenia” and his Armenian counterpart “for providing a huge assistance” to Georgia as it suffered major power blackout in last four years.

500-kV transmission line, Imereti, was damaged in Martvili municipality in western region of Samegrelo; the damage was probably caused by bad weather conditions, but law enforcement agencies are also looking into the matter, according to the Energy Ministry.